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Tag Archives | community

December 2003: “No more powerful medium…”

By on December 29, 2012 in History

December 26, 2003

A board member of Alaska’s Breast Cancer Detection Center writes, thanking the station for its free announcements that help to make a village mammogram program a great success:

Many of the patients reported that they had heard about it on KNOM… This was the first time we had tried to market village trips using radio, and I assure you that we will continue… There is absolutely no more powerful medium in these towns and villages than radio, and KNOM ranks at the top. I do not think any other station can top the respect and trust of your station, and it was an exciting experience for me to finally have proof!

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Bright colors in the cold skies, and warm thanks from a listener

By on December 2, 2012 in Photos, Stories
Sunrise over Nome

Sunrise over downtown Nome, Alaska on a clear November morning.

The Northern sky has seen a thousand shades of red and yellow as the sun pokes up in the southeast and sinks into the southwest. There have been beautiful auroras streaming in the night sky: like sparkling, swirling curtains of green and red light. God has blessed us with a bounty of beauty, reminding us, every day, to delight in the splendor of His creation.

A local listener called KNOM on Thanksgiving and asked that her message be passed on to all who support KNOM:

Tell everyone thank you. Thank you for my radio station. Thank you to the volunteers who have traveled so far to be with us. Thank you for coming here. Thank you for the music, prayers, news, and announcements. Thank you for being my friend. God bless and quyanna*.

We pass on these thanks to the entire KNOM family.

*Quyanna means ”thank you” in the Alaska Native languages of our region.

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What we’re thankful for…

By on November 28, 2012 in Stories

The sun dips down a little more each day, as our days get shorter and the light grows dimmer. Yet, the bright voices of our staff and volunteers shine as radio listeners throughout cold, remote western Alaska listen to their favorite radio station: KNOM!

This Thanksgiving, we remembered supporters, past and present, who worked together to fund, create, and operate KNOM radio. As we enter the Christmas season, we give thanks for an incredible KNOM family helping to keep alive the dream of positive, inspirational radio.

Life can be very difficult at times, but by working together, we can help each other: especially those hardy souls in remote locations in Alaska and Russia. Thousands of families tune in each day to share in KNOM’s uplifting programs. We wish we could share their smiles, kind comments, and thanks with everyone who strives to make their lives better.

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Pro-community, and pro bono

By on November 21, 2012 in Photos, The Nome Static, The Nome Static, 2012 (All), The Nome Static, Christmas 2012

Lance Johnson in Studio A

In this season of giving, we’d be remiss not to thank the many people who give so much of their time and energy to our radio programming.

KNOM is privileged to feature the voices of a number of community deejays, each of whom hosts his or her own show of 1-2 hours, typically in the evenings. Each show features a different blend of music: from blues to classic rock to Alaska Native music.

Our community DJs – like Lance Johnson, pictured at top – host their shows completely for free; many of them have been volunteering at KNOM even longer than some of our staff. Each week, they come to KNOM out of a love of radio, a dedication to our mission, and a commitment to our community.

While these deejays are unpaid, we thank you for making their spirited volunteer service possible. Because of your support, their voices – and the voices of so many others in our region – can be heard. It’s a service crucially needed: for many of our listeners, KNOM is their only source of music, old or new. (To learn more about our staff, visit this page.)

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Conversations in rural Alaska

By on November 13, 2012 in Photos, The Nome Static, The Nome Static, 2012 (All), The Nome Static, November 2012

Teller, Alaska

A regular part of our mission is to send our hardworking volunteers to the rural, isolated villages in our listening area, especially when events rally those communities together around a particular cause.

Eva collects audio at Teller presentationLast month, volunteers Eva DeLappe and Lucus Keppel visited one of the communities closest to KNOM: Teller, a village on the coast of the Seward Peninsula (pictured at top). Both went to gather material for their respective jobs at KNOM. Lucus recorded voices and other material to be used in spot production. Eva (as pictured) reported on a news event, a pancake dinner benefit that featured a local author, Claire Kennon, whose novels address a problem that is tragically rampant in rural Alaska: domestic violence. Here’s Eva in her own words:

It was amazing and inspiring to meet such a courageous woman. In her powerful presentation, Claire shed light on the mindset of a domestic violence survivor; the message was that we cannot judge women who stay in harmful situations, but we can help them.

I also did my first interview for Elder Voices (KNOM’s program featuring the stories of respected Alaska Native elders). I spoke with James Okpealuk (ahk-bee-YAH-look), an 80-year-old Siberian Yup’ik man born and raised in the village of Diomede (DYE-yuh-meed). He told me stories about seal hunting, his father’s love of Eskimo dancing, and his own passion for ivory carving. He was kind and generous, and I felt honored to listen to his stories firsthand.

The drive was fun! It was a two-hour drive on a long, quiet dirt road. And we could tell winter is definitely here. We passed half-frozen streams, saw snow-white mountains, and drove through snow flurries.

Thank you for making trips like this possible! (Additional photos, below: artwork in the Teller school celebrating Native culture and decrying domestic violence.)

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Meet Margaret

By on November 12, 2012 in Photos, The Nome Static, The Nome Static, 2012 (All), The Nome Static, November 2012

Our mission’s new volunteer news reporter, Margaret DeMaioribus, arrived at KNOM in late summer and has hit the ground running. On weekdays, our listeners hear her voice in weather forecasts and news reports on the latest developments happening in their communities.

Margaret has a diverse background. She graduated in 2009 from West Chester University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s in exercise science with minors in nutrition and psychology.

Before coming to KNOM, she spent a year of service in Cleveland, Ohio at Maggie’s Place, a home for pregnant mothers and babies in need.

She’s also driven across the USA and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef.

As for her self-described “fun facts,” Margaret has a 2nd-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do (a Korean martial art form) and has “mascot experience,” having worked in costume as Elmo, Dora the Explorer and the Pink Panther.

In her free time, you’re likely to find Margaret hiking, reading, or singing at Sunday Mass. She says it’s been her dream to live in Alaska, and we’re thrilled to have her fulfill that dream at KNOM. Welcome, Margaret!

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October 1971: The loss of Brother Huck

By on October 6, 2012 in History

October 8, 1971

Traveling by small boat from the village of Pilot Station to St. Mary’s, 33-year-old Br. John Huck, SJ, and three others drown when their boat capsizes near the confluence of the Yukon and Andreafsky Rivers. Huck, who directed construction on the studio building, had become a great friend to the KNOM crew, who are overcome with grief. Huck’s body is never found.

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The people who keep us on the air

By on September 10, 2012 in Photos, Stories
KNOM AM transmitter

KNOM’s AM transmitter site in winter.

Last week, we welcomed the last of this year’s five volunteers to Nome. Lucus Keppel is from Michigan and has committed one year to the KNOM Radio Mission. He joins Margaret, Eva, Dayneé, and Josh. They look forward to a wonderful year of service to listeners in remote bush communities.

As always, we thank everyone who helps us overcome each obstacle and meet every challenge. Sometimes, our challenges are of a technical nature.

Recently, KNOM’s AM transmitter shut down, and the sensor monitoring the temperature inside our transmitter building read 128 degrees! The fans had turned off and had failed to restart. After cooling the building, engineering volunteer Rolland Trowbridge located the reset switch in a control panel and restarted the AM transmitter, returning the KNOM signal to the air.

In the rare moments our AM signal goes offline, we often receive phone calls from listeners asking us “where did you go?” We’re gratified to have such devoted listeners – and dedicated volunteers, staff, and community members who make sure such outages are not just rare, but also brief.

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Looking Back on Four Decades of Volunteers

By on July 1, 2012 in Stories

In our four decades of service, there have been more than 300 generous volunteers who have served at KNOM. Their names are written on cassette and reel-to-reel tape labels, on script and information file folders, on old log sheets, and on so many of the historical records here at KNOM.

Without these volunteers, KNOM would never have stayed on the air to serve families spread out across remote Alaska.

As we approach the 41st anniversary of KNOM’s birth, please join us in prayer and gratitude for the wonderful young volunteers who took on adversity, extreme weather, and a myriad of challenges to make KNOM the dominant source of information, inspiration and fun in Western Alaska.

We thank everyone who has helped to make the KNOM mission a quality volunteer experience for great young men and women.

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Summercise comes to KNOM, and a new challenge pledge for our studio construction

By on June 18, 2012 in Photos, Stories
Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studio Mockup

An artist’s rendering of the Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studios: an annex to KNOM Radio’s current studio building.

The days grow longer and, slowly, the temperatures are rising! The remainders of ice and snow are melting away into the ponds and streams.

Alongside the warmth of summer, Nome’s Summercise has returned.

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